As of 8/31/2018, all members of the NYPD still carrying a service revolver were ordered to carry one of the approved 9MM pistols. There were maybe 400 members still carrying a duty revolver, and the youngest one would have 26 years on the job. Off duty revolvers were still authorized, but the last one would have been an option for cops hired before 1996.
They should have let them keep them. Virtually all of them were no longer on patrol. Cops are superstitious about their guns. We used to have to pay for our own weapons, and we got to hold each of the models on the first day in the academy and choose one. They weren’t just passed out.
Since 2018, any cop who would have been still carrying a duty revolver would have had at least 29 years on the job. Virtually all of them would have been retired by now. For whatever reason, they chose not to take three days off patrol and go to the range to qualify for a free gun and get extended meals and early dismissal. They chose to stay on patrol and answer radio runs in the ghetto. That says something.
The department still has to have .38 ammo for the off duty guns. They could have let them retire with them.